IKEA, one of the world’s most loved and trusted home furnishings brand, honors Equality Day on March 8th, a day traditionally known as International Women’s Day. This is IKEA’s way of bringing an inclusive environment alive and promoting equality and diversity within homes and workplaces alike with this year’s theme being ‘Equality starts at home’.
IKEA’s recent Life at Home Report 2023 (LAH) highlighted that 34% of women report doing more household chores than others they live with, highlighting the importance of addressing gender imbalances in domestic responsibilities. The company believes that gender equality is a human right and that every organization has a role to play in solving this gap.
Recognizing the importance of addressing equality, IKEA has implemented policies that prioritize work-life balance, offering benefits such as Gender Equal Pay, a predictable 5-day workweek with schedules communicated a month in advance, healthcare for extended family members and same sex partners, parental leave for both mothers and fathers alike, and an employee assistance program to support with mental wellbeing.
In its recent effort to extend these values of equality and inclusion to a larger community, IKEA partnered with Standard Chartered Bank to launch a year-long association named ‘Prerna initiative’, starting with a webinar series titled ‘Diversity Dialogues’ . The series will host effective dialogues and address day to day challenges to solve for Equality, Diversity, & Inclusion (ED&I). The series kicked off with the first episode featuring Susanne Pulverer, CEO of IKEA, and Zarin Daruwala, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, exchanging their learnings and thoughts on increasing the country’s women workforce participation from the current 33%.
On the occasion Susanne Pulverer, CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer, IKEA India said, “At IKEA, we always celebrate our diverse workforce, and how we truly bring this value to life every day at work and beyond. Truly creating value through equality means going beyond gender, nationality, or race, and creating equal opportunities to grow. Today, 50% of our Ingka Group Country CEOs are women, we’re breaking gender and intellectual stereotypes every day, our colleagues bring the right values both to their homes and here at IKEA. This collaboration with Standard Chartered Bank to launch our new webinar series, ‘Prerna’, is our effort create a community that is as diverse as the world is, and as inclusive as the world should be.”
As part of its ongoing efforts to champion gender equality, the company highlights that 50% of Ingka Group Country CEOs are women, showcasing company’s dedication to setting best industry standards when it comes to gender diversity and inclusion.
Zarin Daruwala, Cluster CEO, India & South Asia Markets, Standard Chartered Bank said, “DE&I challenges homogeneity and biases, and creates an environment where all voices are heard and valued. I am pleased about the launch of Prerna – a DE&I collaboration between IKEA and SCB. I am confident both organizations will benefit from each other and there is a great opportunity for the broader teams to engage, learn and grow.”
IKEA is committed to offering fair treatment at workplace along with providing equal opportunities – regardless of age, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical ability, ethnicity, race, nationality, religion, or any other dimension of one’s identity.
